Aerodynamic analysis and control mechanism design of cycloidal wind turbine adopting active control of blade motion

Abstract

This paper describes the cycloidal wind turbine, which is a straight blade vertical axis wind turbine using the cycloidal blade system. Cycloidal blade system consists of several blades rotating about an axis in parallel direction. Each blade changes its pitch angle periodically. Cycloidal wind turbine is different from the previous turbines. The wind turbine operates with optimum rotating forces through active control of the blade to change pitch angle and phase angle according to the changes of wind direction and wind speed. Various numerical experiments were conducted to develop a small vertical axis wind turbine of 1 kW class. For this numerical analysis, the rotor system equips four blades consisting of a symmetric airfoil NACA0018 of 1.0m in span, 0.22m in chord and 1.0m in radius. A general purpose commercial CFD program, STAR-CD, was used for numerical analysis. PCL of MSC/PATRAN was used for efficient parametric auto mesh generation. Variables of wind speed, pitch angle, phase angle and rotating speed were set in the numerical experiments. The generated power was obtained according to the various combinations of these variables. Optimal pitch angle and phase angle of cycloidal blade system were obtained according to the change of the wind direction and the wind speed. Based on data obtained from the above analysis, control device was designed. The wind direction and the wind speed were sensed by a wind indicator and an anemometer. Each blades were actuated to optimal performance values by servo motors.